Jake Manning spent one season in the Illinois football program as an operations and recruiting assistant in 2023. Manning came to Champaign from Iowa, where he was an operations graduate assistant for two seasons (2021-22) and a student assistant in operations and alumni engagement for two seasons (2019-20).  

Manning received two degrees at Iowa while he worked for the Hawkeyes’ football team. He earned a bachelor’s in sport management with a business concentration in 2021 and a master’s in sport management in 2022. 

Manning helped facilitate operations at practices and coordinate alumni events at Iowa. He also helped manage alumni social media accounts and organize player and alumni data for program efficiency.